ET 3 TIME IS ESSENCE BUT....

TIME IS ESSENCE BUT….

I started my professional journey from Bangalore in 1984 when it was not bustling IT hub it is today. It was a laid-back city of bungalows with HAL, BEML, HMT, ISRO in government sector and ITC, Kirloskar in private sector as main companies. I started working with M/s Datson Electricals a leading electrical contracting firm that time owned by Mr. Vijay Datar a visionary of sorts. Seeds of consultancy business were sawn there as we also used to do some design consultancy. I learned many aspects of electrical projects, contracting, design, reading drawings, tendering, BOQ & specifications, costing along with few Business aspects in three years I was there. I started working on HAL projects and had memorable experience there and KGF etc. I will cover more about that in next letter. Time is essence of everything and doing right things at right time enhance possibility of success. I learnt that having foresight and starting early is a plus but also that if you are too early , that can be an issue and that you have to be very careful about cashflows of base business while diversifying. Now cards with chips, access control, turnstiles, boom barriers, various security systems etc are very common but in 1985-86 none of this was common and was not manufactured in India. Mr Datar saw business opportunity in these systems in 1985 and started Square D electricals Pvt. Ltd. To bring these technologies. He heavily invested in searching and sourcing by visits to US, Europe, Singapore multiple times. All this was funded from parent company. In 1985 we executed order for 15000 photo ID cards with magnetic tape brought from IDenticard USA. Film was developed by Garware Plastics at Aurangabad (Chatrapati Sambhajinagar Now) as imported one was very expensive. Lamination and coding machines were imported from Singapore. In same year we installed few turnstiles imported from Turno-Style Italy and 200 mtr. range perimeter protection in a very high security project in South India. One gold detection system was also installed in 1986. A substantial money was invested in all these activities from working capital of Parent company M/s Datson Electricals for technologies and equipment. All these projects were implemented successfully but it did not generate substantial demand even in government sector to sustain both companies and generate working capital and cash flows and all CC limits were used. This affected cash flows of parent company and that also suffered badly due to working capital shortage. Both companies suffered badly. There was business opportunity but time was not ripe as it was at least 6-8 years before appropriate time. This was important lesson learnt in my formative years but affected my business strategy about diversification.?